For now, the Premier League remains the strongest of the world leagues. Let’s see how it looks like after ten rounds.
First of all we see a surprising leader: Tottenham. A team teased year after year for not getting close to the trophy. They’ve lost their leader and goal scorer. Kane has left for Bayern Munich (where he’s not doing too badly, having just scored a hat-trick at the weekend) and Tottenham seem to have got a new pair of wings.
How do you explain the paradox? Well, it does. Firstly, Son’s position on the pitch and in the dressing room. The South Korean has become the natural leader of the team. Then the fact that the Londoners have lifted the pressure off themselves. They no longer live under that fantastic pressure imposed by Conte. They’ve approached games more relaxed, no longer playing like it’s the end of the world if they don’t win anything this season either. And they look more like a team. They no longer have unquestionable stars, but they have gained a team. And titles are won with teams.
Even Real Madrid in the Beckham-Figo-Zidane-Ronaldo-Roberto Carlos era didn’t win big trophies because they weren’t a team. Tottenham became.
Arsenal continues last year’s good season, but sometimes Arteta insists on being the new Guardiola and that’s not always good for the Londoners.
Manchester City are suffering. It has become dependent on Haaland’s goals, and if the Norwegian has a bad month (October ended well with a clear win over United, but otherwise…), then they’re in trouble. Anyway, traditionally, ManCity is better in the second half of the season (when it also counts more). But so far, City hasn’t shown they’re invincible. And a team that doesn’t look invincible in England can be beaten relatively easily.
And Aston Villa or Liverpool are teams that can beat anyone at any time. Newcastle and Brighton have European Cup aspirations this season too.
The costly disasters of Man. United and Chelsea
At Manchester United it’s all doom and gloom. The team continues the series of catastrophic seasons and it’s all down to the management. The waters aren’t cleared at the highest level, and it reverberates on the pitch. Ten Hag also seems to have already packed his bags (how many coaches had ManU in the last decade?).
West Ham, Brentford, Chelsea won’t be worried about relegation. It sounds strange that this is an achievement for teams like West Ham and especially Chelsea, but with how poorly they’ve played this season…
Chelsea is a disaster. The Londoners are only alive in the transfer breaks and then they’re gone. Chelsea is a marketing team, not a football team this year.
From Wolves to Burnley anyone can drop down to Championship. And only one team looks like it’s already doomed to relegation – Sheffield United. It’s clearly overtaken by events in the Premier League. One point from a possible thirty, zero wins. You can bet against Sheffield with some confidence. At least that’s what the last two and a half months have shown us. Yeah: Sheffield are not ready for the premier stage of English football, the strongest of the world’s major leagues.
